Anybody have any tips on how to persuade the wifey to let me remodel the living room for these? Maybe I'll tell her that she can remodel the room as long as I can do just one little teeny weeny thing..............

I've been fortunate to hear these horns a couple of times, and I can sincerely say they're just about the finest speakers I've ever heard. I once said to someone looking for a new amp-speaker combo that if a Select and a pair of Parker 98 Signatures won't make you happy, then you can't be made happy. Well, these would make you happy........

I'm not saying that a Select and a set of 98 Sigs is anything less than maxed out on the smile factor scale, but the corner horns are BAD TO THE BONE. If you have the corners and room for it, they'll be the end of your speaker search forever.

I seriously would remodel my room for these if I had the dough. Must have willpower........getting weaker, weaker...............

Thanks Steve, will the plans show exactly how your using them? ie: the exact speakers, mdf or ply etc, and I noticed that there is a high freq part of the horn on the top that I wondered how your using and if it will be part of the plans and what speaker is used there also. Thanks alot Dave

"So, those of you that have heard the horns, what drivers were in them at the time?"

When I heard them they had 6 inch fostex fullrangers in them, the fe167e I think. They have a quality thats hard to describe. Its kind of hard to hear them because they're so transparent. Very impressive. -Matt

I was curious as to which driver was in the horns at Decfest as the picture shows what looks like the Lowther DX 55 I think. I know Steve did enough trials with this speaker to come up with the gizmo. Has anyone here heard the horn with both?

During the Decfest the corner horns had the Fostex FE167 drivers with the dustcap removed and a phase plug of sorts installed to kill the beam and extend the highs.

This combo is very good, well balanced, has excellent weight and body with wonderful detail and air. I still use these drivers in the corner horns and really I have no plans to change them.

The DX55 had it's moments while in the corner horns, but it IS a midrange in that it has no real bass. The DX55 was never intended to be run as a full range speaker with supporting the bottom end with another driver.

Steve, can you describe the phase plug you used? I heard it was a tube...? This could help me out as my honeymoon period with the 167e's is about over. A phase plug and corner horn loading might save our relationship. I will have to build false corners tho as the room is 24' wide, sounds worth it. Don

Would this work with Zen Select? It looks like the Fostex driver is 8 ohm driver. Would the Zen Select with the EX mod better match for this?

Also, it sounds like, by reading the PDF, that you are supposed to have some kind of opening to the adjacent room BETWEEN the speakers for goood depth in the sound stage? My room will have a door at the back of the room (on the corner), and the speakers at the front of the room. I wonder if that will still work? Building the fake wall thing will not be accepted by the wife

Hi johnny boy,Here is the first paragraph from the introductory thread on these speakers:

"Here is the flagship of Decware speakers, the Decware Corner Horns shown with the production drivers, a modified Fostex 167E. These are 8 ohm at 94dB. They work well with all Decware amps, but especially well with the EX modded amps, the Signature monoblocks, Torii and the new SE34I2. They will be available for sale in 2005."

I need another set of speakers about as much as another nose. That said, the corner horns have been my goal for many years. I have seen them and heard them, have kept up with this forum waiting for the plans to be published.

Now that the cat is out of the bag I am feeling more than inadequate. My woodworking skills and equipment don't seem to be up to the challenge. I wish Ziggy would consider adding a kit of the critical pieces for chumps like me.

The sensitivity rating when a single 6 inch driver is used will be whatever the rating is of the driver. Naturally the driver will have more bass and enhanced power handling but from 120 Hz on up there should be little if any gain.

If you use the 4-5.25 inch driver configuration that gives you up to 4500 Hz or so, then yes. Remember that without the corner a horn has to be larger to do the same thing where bass is concerned. This probably wouldn't be an issue for a center channel application though.

Steve, Eddie (any others who have heard these at the last decfest... )

Assembly and construction aside, how do the corner horns compare with the HDTs? I've decided on building rather than buying my next set of speakers and I'm down to 4 differnet options with the HDT and corner horns in the mix so any feedback would be appreciated.

This is an opinion from a old/less than perfect ear. I have heard the corner horns and feel that they should top your list of DYI speaker projects.

That is if you have the room for them and the corners in that room.

If it were me and I had a large enough room I would go with the false corner plan and place the units at least six to ten feet forward/away from the front wall. This would give you the deep sound stage that Steve has in his listening room.

This is an opinion from a old/less than perfect ear. I have heard the corner horns and feel that they should top your list of DYI speaker projects.

That is if you have the room for them and the corners in that room. [/quote]

Thanks Dennis, your feedback is much appreciated. I have the corners, but the not sure about the room dimensions. The room is approx 20'(l) x 16'(w) x 10'(h) - the corners I have availiable are along the length.

Steve, quick scans of the plans, and I have a couple questions re "When built by human hands even a 1/2 degree mistake on one angle can multiply itself throughout the angles of the design into a serious problem.". This, coupled with the desire never to paint wood....

- Are you sure the angles are 23 deg? and not 22.5 deg? (360 / 16 = 22.5)

- 3/4" plywood... never seen such a beast. Most plywood is 23/32". Can you clarify the specifics of what you where using? Plywood, Baltic plywood? MDF?

And a few more general questions re these speakers...

- these seem *far* more specialized to the room than other speakers (more specifically HDTs). Can you confirm? I'm converned that the acoustics currently in the room are minimal and wondering how sensitive the horns are to the room's condition.

- Can you elaborate on, "The ideal situation for these speakers is to place them in the corners on either side of a large opening to an adjoining room."? Is one asking for trouble to simply put these in corners of a large room?

- Re "We recommend the Fostex FE167 full range driver for this cabinet as our ideal choice for lower powered amplifiers." , ay ideas how this might sounds with a Zen Select (and Select with CSP?)

[quote author=Nievate If it were me and I had a large enough room I would go with the false corner plan and place the units at least six to ten feet forward/away from the front wall. This would give you the deep sound stage that Steve has in his listening room.

- Are you sure the angles are 23 deg? and not 22.5 deg? (360 / 16 = 22.5)

- 3/4" plywood... never seen such a beast. Most plywood is 23/32". Can you clarify the specifics of what you where using? Plywood, Baltic plywood? MDF?

And a few more general questions re these speakers...

- these seem *far* more specialized to the room than other speakers (more specifically HDTs). Can you confirm? I'm converned that the acoustics currently in the room are minimal and wondering how sensitive the horns are to the room's condition.

- Can you elaborate on, "The ideal situation for these speakers is to place them in the corners on either side of a large opening to an adjoining room."? Is one asking for trouble to simply put these in corners of a large room?

- Re "We recommend the Fostex FE167 full range driver for this cabinet as our ideal choice for lower powered amplifiers." , ay ideas how this might sounds with a Zen Select (and Select with CSP?)

- The 'sails' seem a bit tricky... any additional pictures?

--eric

ps: thanks in advance.

[/quote]

No I'm not sure what the angles will be - 23 or 22.5 degrees. This is a cabinet that you will have to find the angles as you go. The angles will be determined by the accuracy of your layout.

3/4 plywood is not 3/4 inches - actual thickness of different materials also vary slightly. Of course actual thickness effects all your measurments. This is why an actual template is provided for you to lay out your cabinet. I have used MDF and birch plywood. The cabinet is not a "live" cabinet where the type of wood used will greatly effect it's sound. You can make it from whatever you like.

Well, they eliminate the bass issue in two corners, but other then that they are affected by the rooms dimensions and acoustics just like any other speaker.

If you simply put these into the corners you will have no more depth to the soundstage then any other speakers placed in the corners. Plus keep in mind that the farther apart they are the farther you will sit back to stay on axis.

Yea, it sounds great. No problems.

The sails (or wings) are a bit tricky. If you laid out your cabinet square and true and perfectly centered the template you make for the first wing should also fit the remaining three.

[quote author=serenechaos link=1112743937/30#37 date=1115850560]These are quite a bit more complex than HDTs, etc. and are hand fit. It would be REALLY difficult to build as a knock down kit w/o cutting on a CNC machine.

[/quote]

Actually, I think it would require a 5-axis CNC machine* and carefull 3-D program code to execute the changing angle of the inside curve of the final flare "sail" panels ( W,X, etc).

*these are not quite as common as the "big routers", and machine time for a small production run would be quite costly.

If this design was ever to migrate to commercial production, it would probably make more sense to build KD assembly in cast fibreglass.

Custom colorscheme and pinstriping by Chip Foose, please, with replaceable front bafflles by the zigster

I think if one was to go into production the design could be tweaked to make it easier. Remember, Steve designed these to fit his needs with the tools he had on hand. I'm not discrediting him, I am just saying there are lots of ways to skin the cat and still come out with the same results. No doubt if he were to go into production the parts would change. Im sure Ziggy has plenty of ideas already.And knowing what I know about Steve's work, the product would probably improve!

Hard to compare the corner horns to the HDTs as the corner horns are in Steve's custom listening room that was, to some degree, built around/with these speakers in mind. At the 2003 Decfest we heard them and the HDTs (with still fresh drivers). The horns in his listening room, the HDTs in his garage, hardly a fair comparision.

The horn is too small to extend frequency response below 40 Hz, therefore it cannot be an audiophile speaker as it misses some of the musical range, it can only be part of an audiophile speaker.

To develop depth of soundstage a corner horn must be located in a room that has wing walls across from each other as Steve has done, making it practicality very limited.

Steve's room isn't small, but with the needed wing walls and 45 degree orientation built into the design of the horns, the listener is pretty well forced into nearfield listening setup. This again limits its application.

Maybe Steve is more busy than I can imagine, but don't know why its taken years after they were built to get these plans off the shelf.

I wasn't all that impressed with what I heard. Keep in mind that they use middle of the road Fostex drivers. And as you may recall I like and own Fostex. This goes back to my suggestions to make a larger version of the cabinet that would accommodate larger drivers and produce deeper bass. IMO this is a very involved cabinet to be limited by "ordinary" drivers. And IMO no cabinet can be ideally suited for a wide variety of drivers as has been discussed here. Just my opinion.

The music played was unfamilar to me. The source was obviously vinyl, with all it's surface noise/etc. As a digital guy that bothered me right from the start. Another reason I wasn't impressed is because Steve played a game with each of us, as we were escorted into the room blind folded. Games shouldn't be necessary. Perhaps I take audio too seriously.

I finally heard The Horns sound good at the recent MichiFest. Sorry, I don't recall which of the six amps we had there that we were listening to them with, might of been the Cary SuperAmp. They were Randy's old beat up pair with the original drivers I believe. They really did sound very nice.

But The Horns have some issues IMO too (primarily lack of bass, they sit too low for many domestic settings, and they use a somewhat cheaper/lesser efficiency Fostex driver). OTOH I fully agree with Ed's manifesto of the virtues of the single 4 inch driver speaker (with the caveat of needing a powered sub/bass augmenter to go with them).

Another amazingly good speaker that uses cheap/small Fostex drivers ($38 FE127E) is the Omega Super 3. The Super 3 is standmounted, wide baffle bass reflex that cost about the same as The Horns when you add in the stands but actually goes a bit deeper.

I'll admit to being a big mass loaded transmission line fan having owned them for nearly 30 years. Bass reflex and horn enclosures are suited to different drivers, so its an apple/orange issue right from the start.

But I prefer tubes to conventional solid state from 60 Hz on up. I'd put chip and digital amps in their own categories and typically ahead of either tube or conventional solid state.

Wouldn't be nice if each of us could record our audio "beliefs" with our profile so you could know just what context to take comments/opinions in?